COVID-19 cluster in Gurugram; 19 test positive after attending party, condominium sealed [details]

Fresh COVID-19 cases in India shows a worrying upward trend over the past one week, with the country reporting single-day rise of 16,752 cases in the last 24 hours to take the overall tally to 1,10,96,731 on Sunday, Union Health Ministry said. As people seems to have relaxed and continue to flout COVID-19 protocols, the number of new cases are spiking again in clusters. The latest report shows yet another lax behaviour by a community in Gurugram, which attended a birthday party and many have contracted the virus.

An upscale condominium in Gurugram's Sector 67 was sealed and declared a containment zone on Thursday after 19 of its residents were tested positive for the virus. Although not confirmed, the residents appeared to have gotten the virus after attending a birthday party at a restaurant.

According to a TOI report, a group of 22-25 people from the same condominium attended a birthday party on February 7 and around seven people got the virus. But later, as many as 12 residents were tested positive.

"There are 19 active cases in the condominium as of now. They tested positive on different dates. We cannot confirm the source of infection, even though we carried out contact tracing of those who tested positive initially. The party was hosted on February 7 and the first case was detected on February 19," chief medical officer (CMO) Virender Yadav said.

A shocking trend nationwide

Clusters of new COVID-19 cases are emerging in different parts of India, contributing to the sharp rise in the fresh tally. Recently in Bengaluru, many apartment complexes and colleges were turned into containment zones after several cases of COVID-19 were reported.

For instance, Sambhram College of Management Sciences in the Yelahanka zone was sealed after 18 new cases were reported after students returned from Kerala and Maharashtra. Similarly, Manjushree College of Nursing in Kaval Byrasandra reported 40 new cases and an apartment complex in Bilekahalli was sealed after 108 residents tested positive.

This is an alarming trend as people are seen flouting social distancing norms everywhere. Face masks are no longer seen in public places.

The experts have expressed a number of possibilities which could be owed to the stride ranging from lax attitude of people towards following Covid protocols to likeability of "mutations and new strains" causing the surge, as has been studied by the laboratories involved in Covid detection across the country.